Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Want Sporting Midfielder Matheus Nunes

In the past, when the Portuguese media linked Liverpool with an expensive Liga star—and they could be counted on to link Liverpool with a at least a few of them with every transfer window—it was usually safe to ignore it as nothing more than low quality rumour churn.

The arrival of Luis Diaz in January and Darwin Núñez this summer, though, both of whom were first linked in the Portuguese press, means that it’s hard to write off such rumours as might have been the case in the past. Which brings us to Sporting CP’s Matheus Nunes.

According to the chatter out of Portugal this week, the 23-year-old Portuguese international has become a priority for the Reds this summer. In part, it’s said, because Liverpool’s local rivals Everton might just have started sniffing around the €45M-rated central midfielder.

Given Liverpool have signalled that they will wait until next summer to move for a midfield player we’re tempted to write off the Nunes chatter, but on paper he doesn’t look an entirely implausible potential target, a box-to-box player with some ability to operate as a six.

With a depth chart currently comprised of Fabinho, Thiago, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keïta, Harvey Elliott, Fabio Carvalho, James Milner, and current ninth-choice midfield option Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, though, it’s hard to see quite where Nunes would fit into the mix.